The Social Archeology Channel

Just one glimpse of the elaborate mechanism, known as a Rube Goldberg Machine, is enough to get any kid begging for their parents to buy them a Mouse Trap game. Granted, it is perhaps the most inefficient way ever concocted to catch a mouse, but that’s really beside the point (or maybe it actually is the point.) Regardless, kids have been enjoying this simple game for almost five decades and its popularity shows no sign of slowing. Continue reading...

Not since the era of Ed Wood has a movie been so delightfully bad it was actually good. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! was so bad, in fact, that one might actually surmise that the filmmaker purposefully set out to make the worst movie possible…and they would be right. Producer John De Bello was determined to make a spoof of the horrifically bad 1950s-style horror films, and he succeeded so magnificently that the movie set the benchmark for bad movies for perhaps centuries to come. Let's take a look back at this unforgettable film, released in 1978. Continue reading...

There are some bands that are easy to categorize by genre, or even sub-genre – perhaps never more so than the early 80s. If you weren’t defined as “synth rock” or “new wave,” you were probably exploring “adult contemporary” or “pomp rock.” But for one particular band, Tears For Fears, definitions don’t come easy. They might have fallen into any of the aforementioned categories, or, perhaps they simply created their own. One thing is for certain; their original sound and songwriting skills made them on of the most successful and popular bands to emerge from the era. Continue reading...

Many toys have come and gone over the years, but create one that spits out candy every time you play with it and you've got a sure winner. Better yet, offer a vast selection of dispensers modeled after just about every pop culture icon to ever exist, each filled to the brim with a stack of yummy fruit-flavored confections, and you're assured to win the heart of every kid (and collector) in existence. Yes, today our focus is on Pez candy. Continue reading...

Backed by a thudding bass beat, dozens of invaders from another world descended on our planet in 1978. Within months, Space Invaders was one of the hottest fads on the globe, helping propel the video arcade into a multi-billion dollar industry. Let's take a look back and trace this history of this beloved game. Continue reading...

Long before Stephanie Meyer unleashed the Twilight book series to a teen audience thirsty for vampire tales, movie audiences were introduced to the sleepy coastal town of Santa Carla. It was within this community that teen heartthrobs and fanged villains waged war against one another in the beloved 1987 horror film, The Lost Boys. Continue reading...

Most Americans got their first look at Laurence Tureaud (aka: Mr T.) in 1982, when the brawny, mohawk-laden former bouncer appeared in Rocky IV, as Rocky Balboa's formidable boxing opponent, Clubber Lang. Kids took notice of the T-man the following year, when he appeared as B.A. "Bad Attitude" Baracus on the hugely-succesful television series, The A-Team. It didn't take long for network execs to realize his pre-teen popularity and give him his own Saturday morning cartoon series the same year, Mr. T. And right on cue, Quaker Oats introduced a crunchy, sweetened corn cereal, shaped in little "T" shapes, which they simply dubbed Mr. T. cereal. Continue reading...

Rivalry. Gunfire. A daring escape. These are not things you would normally associate with Daryl Hall and John Oates but that is exactly how the duo met. They were both students at Temple University when, while attending a band contest, rival gangs started shooting up the place and our two heroes ran into the same elevator. Somehow in the midst of their mutual terror, the two artists bonded over their taste in music. They were both involved with other bands at the time and they parted ways after that magical elevator ride but they soon met up again; Hall and Oates became Hall & Oates. Continue reading...